“It’s not possible that he suddenly gets dropped like the last rider in class” – Former Vuelta stage winner casts doubt on Remco Evenepoel’s UAE Tour struggles

Remco Evenepoel left the UAE Tour searching for explanations. Former Vuelta a Espana stage winner Adriano Malori is not convinced they are the right ones.

Evenepoel’s week in the Emirates followed a sharp arc. A dominant time trial victory. Then heavy time losses on Jebel Mobrah. Then another mountain setback on Jebel Hafeet. The Belgian pointed to fatigue from pushing a 68-tooth single chainring in the time trial, recovery issues earlier in the race and simply not yet reaching the necessary climbing level.

For Malori, the swing is too abrupt to be read at face value. “It’s not possible that a rider who dominated the week before suddenly gets dropped like the last rider in class,” the former Movistar Team rider told Bici.Pro.

That sentence cuts straight to the core of the debate. Just days before arriving in the UAE, Evenepoel had controlled races in Spain with authority, riding rivals off his wheel without appearing strained. In Abu Dhabi, he was suddenly isolated and distanced on gradients that, historically, suit his sustained tempo style.

Malori does not believe the explanation lies in desert heat or simple fatigue. “To me it looked like Evenepoel went there to test the time trial, and the rest of the race didn’t interest him that much,” he said.

The time trial itself is central to Malori’s reading of events.

Evenepoel rode the stage with a 68-tooth single chainring, a significant choice even in today’s high-speed aero era. He later suggested the effort may have contributed to the difficulties that followed in the mountains.

Malori sees it differently. “It was an extremely fast course, and this year he has changed many things, from preparation to equipment,” he explained. “You have to test that gear in competition. You need to understand how to launch it, how to accelerate, how the chain works across the cassette.”

In other words, this was not an indulgence. It was a rehearsal.

He dismissed the idea that such a gear would leave lasting damage in modern stage racing. “There is no disadvantage. The distances are shorter now, cadence is higher. It’s not like the old 50-kilometre time trials at 78 rpm. The problem doesn’t exist.”

The implication is clear: the mountain losses were unlikely to have been caused by mechanical overreach.

Perhaps Malori’s most pointed observation concerns the terrain itself. “Jebel Hafeet is longer and harder, but it’s not Alpe d’Huez,” he said.

Evenepoel’s profile has always been built around steady-state climbing rather than explosive accelerations. On paper, Hafeet suits that engine. For Malori, the version of Evenepoel seen in Spain should not be distanced so decisively on such a climb unless the broader objective lay elsewhere. “I think he went there to test the time trial, he won it, and then he drew a line,” he added.

That interpretation reframes the week entirely. The GC was not the priority. The time trial was.

Malori also questioned the structure of Evenepoel’s early season. Mallorca. Andalucia. UAE. Then, a month away from racing before Catalunya. “You might expect that from Van Aert targeting the Classics, not from Evenepoel,” he observed, suggesting the UAE Tour may have doubled as an endurance block rather than a peak performance target.

He even noted that Evenepoel did not yet appear at his leanest racing condition. “If you look at the photos, he is still slightly above his usual standard,” Malori said, implying that February was not meant to showcase final climbing form.

That matters when weighing the broader context. Evenepoel has repeatedly stated that his defining goal remains beating Tadej Pogacar at the Tour de France. February in the desert is not July in the Alps.

Evenepoel’s openness in dissecting his setbacks has drawn mixed reactions. He acknowledged being dropped. He referenced recovery, illness and effort distribution. He did not hide from the outcome.

Malori’s perspective does not accuse him of indifference. Instead, it questions whether the narrative of collapse is misplaced. “He knows his programme, and he did what he had to do,” Malori said. “The important thing is that the team knew it. The rest doesn’t matter.”

The UAE Tour, in this reading, becomes less a warning sign and more a controlled checkpoint in a longer preparation arc.

Whether that interpretation proves accurate will only become clear later this spring, and ultimately in July.

But for Malori, the idea that Evenepoel simply “lost his level” in a matter of days is the least convincing explanation of all.